foot at a time into a deep ravine. their disaster. and "dancing with the stars." the early line which fans take another turn around the ballroom. good friday, everybody. it was more than just a summer storm. the latest extreme weather delivering a violent blow from the great plains to the northeast. >> severe weather is blamed for one death in pennsylvania. hail, hurricane-force winds, damaged homes, trees, even cars, 300,000 folks lost power and more than 900 flights had to be canceled. more now from abc's ginger zee. >> reporter: severe storms almost everywhere you look. let's start in scranton, pennsylvania. damaging rains and winds blue

through the town and elmiria, new york. the first images of a tornado that ripped roofs from hopes and trapped people in their cars. pounding hail? cincinnati. incredible lightning around the great lakes. it's been a wild week. the nation had 700 reports of damaging wind since monday alone. these images from topeka, kansas, power lines snapped by powerful winds. the severe storms being fed in part by the extreme heat. the nation still blastered with heat warnings and advisory. it's been so hot, cooling pound ponds outside nuclear plants are either getting too warm for the plant to function safely. >> it's at unprecedented levels now and will only go up. >> reporter: across the nation the heat is twisting rail lines and buckling roads.

with all of these dangers, it's still too dry. a phrase echoed from coast to coast. almost every state now has some level of drought giving grass fires like this that started burning along an oklahoma interstate plenty of fuel. while the threat is mostly over as we go into friday. i want to note some air travel and anywhere that saw damage will be affected going into the weekend. zinger zee, abc news, new york. and the opening ceremony at the olympics are just about here and all eyes are on london. >> they do indeed. but even before the games get under way, mitt romney set off quite a controversy questioning whether the organizers are really prepared. tahman bradley has the latest. >> reporter: they're rehearsing in london. the opening ceremony extravaganza is hours away. but the city is on edge about the olympic games and this didn't help. >> it's hard to know how well it

will turn out. >> reporter: presumptive republican nominee mitt romney's remarks set off a firestorm. >> mitt romney wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? >> reporter: romney later clarified his comment, even admitted he made mistakes when he lead the 2002 salt lake games. >> all of the mistakes at the organizing committee and i made a few. >> reporter: so, is london ready? >> our absolute top priority must be to keep people safe. >> reporter: british prime minister david cameron said security plans include extra police. in the sky and on the water. even the military is happening. a fighter jet lost communication. and evacuation of a mall after a

fire alarm went off. wealth london is ready or not the olympic athletes are ready to go for the gold. first lady michelle obama will attend the openinger is moan i she's leading the delegation. go team usa. >> thanks, tahman, have a good weekend. most of america doesn't relate to mitt romney's religion, but that may not matter in the race against president obama. a new poll said his faith is very different from their own but they're comfortable with it. the same poll revealed president obama is christian and 17% believe he's still a muslim. it's been a week since the colorado movie theater massacre. james monthly manies will be officially charged with the murders monday. a judge ordered university of

colorado not to release holmes' school records. the judge said releasing those would hinder the ongoing investigation. and the massacre could people out of the theaters this weekend. one study found 20% to 25% are hesitant to go to the cinema this weekend. that could have a serious impact on hollywood's bottom line. federal drug agents led a nation crack down on designer drugs, including synthetic marijuana. they arrested 91 people and seized millions of pack ets of synthetic marijuana and $36 million in cash. and the coast guard has busted a major drug smuggling winds off the watters off florida. it investigators found 5 tons of marijuana on a ship. 350 bails of it. six people were turns over to

the department of homeland security. a couple in washington state spent the last week watching their front lawn simply disappear falling bit by bit off a 200-foot cliff edging closer and closer to their home. here's the worst part. there's nothing they can do about it. authorities said the landslide may have been triggered by a natural spring shaping course after a year of heavy rain. talk about a slow motion disaster. >> talk about a helpless sideways there, helpless feeling. time now for the friday weather forecast. doesn't it sound good? >> friday. >> severe thunderstorms shifting south threatening washington, d.c. stormy around indianapolis and cincinnati, scattered thunderstorms in the northeast. showers along the gulf coast and thunderstorms in the rockies. >> temperatures, 90s in the rockies. 70s pacific northwest p and 80s

from omaha over to the big apple. >> and coming up. bombshell new audio in the jerry sandusky scandal as penn state faces a new lawsuit. >> also ahead, major recall on popular suvs. the problem gas pedals that can stick. >> and later call it the guy aisle, the storm making it easy, like we want to say, putting all of the stuff men like in one place. >> amen.

welcome back, everyone. the recall of a popular ford suv is expanding this morning. it now involves nearly half a million escapes and mavericks from about a decade ago with v-6 engines and cruise control. more than a dozen crashes and one death are blamed on the sticky throttles. new cars are using less gas than ever. a private research firm finds new cars in the first half of this year averaged just under 24 miles per gallon. that's one mile better than a year ago. that's as car makers prepare to meet tougher government standers down the road. this morning twitter is apologizing for the second major outage in five weeks. the service is back up and running after users were aun able to send or receive tweets for more than an hour yesterday. oh, no, what are we going to do. >> don't laugh. >> twitter blamed the outage on their own system failures not a crash of tweets related to the

olympics. a sign of the times. facebook stock lost about one third of its initial value after the company issued its earnings report as a public company. revenue is up but profits have been disappointing. facebook said users are shifting to mobile devices which cuts into the money game players play online. this is a story for my dear old front. more men are shopping for groceries so a new york supermarket decided to cater to them. it's the man aisle. all things that appear to man. razors, hot sauce. condoms. i send my man to the grocery store. >> beef jerky. >> i like all these thing, especially hot sauce. >> well, okay. when we come back this morning. new audio and new evidence revealed in the jerry sandusky

child abuse scandal as penn state prepares for a new lawsuit. and later, lady gaga headed for the silver screen. words out this morning on her acting debut. a party? [ music plays, record skips ] hi, i'm new ensure clear. clear, huh? my nutritional standards are high. i'm not juice or fancy water, i'm different. i've got nine grams of protein. twist my lid. that's three times more than me! twenty-one vitamins and minerals and zero fat! hmmm. you'll bring a lot to the party. [ all ] yay! [ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge!

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d.c. and atlanta. it will be wet in the northeast and along the gulf coast. expect a slick ride in parts of the rockies. if you're flying today. airport lays expected in washington, d.c., charlotte and hotlanta. this week begins with the ncaa leveling severe penalties against penn state for the child sex abuse coverup. now the week is ending with word of a new lawsuit against the school. >> that's right a man who said he's victim number two from the jerry sandusky trial now plans to sue the university. on top of that. voice mails left by the convicted coach are being made public. >> reporter: civil attorneys say the voice mails, jerry sandusky was trying to assert control over so-called victim number two as the investigation over the sexual abuse mounted and insightment proved imminent. >> jere, i'm probably not going to be able to hold anybody.

probably ought to just go forward. i would be very firm and express my feelings up front, but -- but, you know, there's nothing, really, to hide. >> reporter: sandusky was convicted of molesting victim number two, even though the victim didn't testify. why he never came forward before is unclear. his philadelphia-based attorney are not answering question. sandusky's defense mendola saie identified victim number two. mike mcquerrey testified he witnessed sandusky sexually assaulting the boy in the football showers in 2001. in a second voice mail from september of last year. sandusky asked the young man if he wants to go to a football game. >> just calling to see if you had any interest in going to a penn state game this saturday.

if you could get back to me and let me know, i would appreciate it. and when you get this message, give me a call. and i hope to talk to you later. thanks. i love you. >> those voice mails ending with "i love you"? >> it is time now for sports. >> highlights from espn news. >> randy scott with your update. we start in cleveland. justin verlander had a nice night. also a not so nice night. 62 starts with six innings and more. he's getting support from dellman young. you might think that's enough. it wasn't. bottom, seven. carlos santana. bottom deep and gone. next batter, next pitch. same location, same swing, darn near the same section in right field. we're tied at three. still verlander and indians still hitting. cabrera to right. jose lopez, in.

it's 4-3, indians. >> and ramon santiago, you got to make that grab. instead he can't and chu scores and indians win, 5-3, your final. in the national league, matt holliday facing the dodger, how about a three-run thursday as in a three-run win. matt holliday. solo shot there. 17th of the season. cards up 7-4, trying to button up the save instead buzzes jerry hurston jr. 93-mile-an-hour dirty fastball. cards win 7-4. nascar sprint cup series returns to espn on sunday with the brickyard 400. championship contenders, jimmie johnson, dale earnhardt jr. and tony stewart are all looking to continue their momentum and make a statement at indianapolis. see who gets to kiss the bricks. the brickyard 400 presented by

golden corral. coverage begins sunday at noon on espn. >> boog itty, book itty, right? >> coming up. katherine jackson's whereabouts. >> and mirrorball mania. "dancing with the stars" ging b hd 8 stop all the cutesy stuff. and start talking about what you really want from your toilet paper. it's time to talk about clean. feeling clean is so important. vo: quilted northern soft & strong is stronger than the leading rippled brand to help protect against breakthrough. for myself, for my family, it keeps us clean. i use quilted northern. quilted northern soft & strong. protection for a confident clean or your money back. >> with hotwire's low prices, i can afford to visit chicago for my first big race and l.a. for my best friend's wedding. because when hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them. so i got my hotels

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it's friday. time to check "the pulse," the stories we guarantee you'll be talking about. we have been putting our chips on the table. these are hot topics. >> they are. >> michael jackson's mom is back home with her grandchildren and the nasty feud ripping apart. >> after katherine surfaced at a spa in arizona, she's reportedly poised to try to regain custody of michael's three kids already meeting face to face with her lawyer but prince tweeted that his grandmother has been misguided by family members. >> and he tweeted that aunt janet was trying to block them to speaking with their grandma ma. >> there's something going on. i think janet is a central figure in what's going on in some of this. >> you'll get to the bottom of this. >> i will. >> you heard her sing, dance and play piano. get ready for lady gaga's acting

debut. >> she's taking that poker face to the big screen in "machete kills." as she put it, filming was insane. the movie also stars mel gibson, sophia vergara and charlie sheen. >> there's another -- >> whoo! that's a nice cast. >> and only a few hours until we learn which veterans will return to the battle of the mirrorball trophy. the big rae veal is later this morning. >> the cast is supposed to be top secret. but as always, some high profile names have already been mentioned. among tem. bristol palin, joey laurence and donny osmond. the show comes back to abc on september 24th. >> i know you're waiting with baited breath to see if marie

maria or kim kardashian come back. >> for some of you, local news is next. and why with we care so much about hollywood love. a

. next, big retailer set to open a new store in san francisco. we'll have a preview. >> few hour standoff with deputies ends with a suspect in the hospital. >> meteorologist mike nicco will have the forecast. off to a misty morning clouds over san francisco one more cooler than average and thunderstorms from the ohio valley to d.c., atlanta, where's showers in the northeast. finally, heartbreak for a

hollywood couple. i really thought they were going to last. robert pattinson moved out of the home he shared with kristen stewart. >> that, for them. what makes so many folks care about what happens to hollywood couples. for insight, here's abc's john donvan. >> reporter: love falters as close followers of the kristen stewart robert pattinson real-life romance know one that echoes the passion they carry in the "twilight" series. real-life, kristen has been caught cheating on real-life robert. and she's apologized publicly. we've seen it before. the movie star jumps up and down on a couch to tell the world he's in love. they get married, they split. fine. it's different when they perform their love in a story in a movie as during his movie to nicole kidman. watch eyes wide shut, the

feeling you get, they're not just acting. >> you're fine? >> couldn't be better. >> reporter: when pitt and jolie played mr. and mrs. smith. they fell in love during the movie. you wonder, had it started yet the day they shot this scene? it's classic, tracy, hepburn, tailor and burton. bogart and becall. some think that was for real. here's the thing. taylor and burton broke up. cruise and kidman broke up. where does that leave the fans? well, kristen and robert may or may not be finished but the scenes they shot, those don't change. time was, something in those was for real. we know, we've seen that before. john donvan, abc news, pittman, new jersey. >> i promise our tv romance will never break up, paula.

>> we have one? >> that's news this morning. >> have a great weekend. captioned by closed captioning services, inc.